Massive disaster averted: iPhone will play nicely with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

The horror -- HORROR, I TELL YOU -- in the enterprise about the iPhone's former inability to access e-mail from the now corporately ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers has been addressed by the fine folks in Redmond:

The update is expected to address the many issues Exchange 2007 users have been having, including with Mac Mail and the fact that when they access their mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 server, certain IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) clients cannot open the bodies of the e-mail messages, which triggers an error message.

This fix is important as the iPhone will work with Exchange Server via IMAP4, Keith McCall, chief technology officer of Azaleos and a former Exchange executive, told eWEEK.

"Exchange 2007 has had some difficulties with the IMAP4 protocol implementation, which are at least partially expected to be addressed with Exchange 2007 Rollup 3. We are currently testing these fixes to see that they do address the issue with Mac Mail," he said.

For the rest of us, that means that iPhone users will be able to access e-mail with the IMAP protocol, meaning the mail remains on the server and won't be tied to the internal memory of the iPhone. So you can access your e-mail with the phone, then access it again with your desktop e-mail client.

Does this mean that Yahoo (and maybe Google) will be offering IMAP service to their e-mail users? Both currently offer the POP protocol, in which all mail is downloaded to the device itself and then either erased from the server or kept there (to be dealt with via a Web interface). I've tried using POP mail while keeping messages on the server, and it's a pain in the ass. When I see an e-mail, I want to either keep it or delete it right then and there -- so that's why IMAP, especially in this age of total connectivity, is the way to go.